In 20/20 hindsight, using React for a text editor isn't a very good choice. Text editors, especially ones geared towards fast typists / programmers, are a double whammy in terms of being latency sensitive and needing to open large files.
Atom was already at a disadvantage on both counts on account of it being a Javascript app running inside chromeless Chrome. Making a browser do large things fast is difficult, and having React's paradigm of diffing a now huge virtual DOM running on every single keystroke can't really work.
React still works great for smaller and more demanding sites, though - but it does hit limits on large and complex DOM diffs at high frequencies with low latency demands.
Atom was already at a disadvantage on both counts on account of it being a Javascript app running inside chromeless Chrome. Making a browser do large things fast is difficult, and having React's paradigm of diffing a now huge virtual DOM running on every single keystroke can't really work.
React still works great for smaller and more demanding sites, though - but it does hit limits on large and complex DOM diffs at high frequencies with low latency demands.